Ministry of higher education, science and
Children’s literature: Genre and text-type
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(о)Critical approaches to children\' s literature
1.2. Children’s literature: Genre and text-type Defining children’s literature. Before the nineteenth century, very few books were especially written for children. Since then, changing attitudes towards childhood and children’s development, along with the increased sophistication of print technology, have led to the development of children’s literature as a major industry. There is, however, no simple, straightforward definition of children’s literature that can be applied with equal validity at different times and in different contexts. Just as concepts of ‘child’, 'childhood’ and ‘literature’ have changed over time, so too have definitions of ‘children’s literature’. It is not a simple matter to define ‘childhood’ or ‘literature’. Some writers maintain that children’s literature differs from adult literature in degree only (Lukens, 1995); others (Lesnik- Oberstein, 1996) maintain that it differs in kind, that is, that the word ‘literature’ when used in the context of ‘children’s literature’ cannot necessarily be related in any straightforward way to the word ‘literature’ as used in other contexts. Thus, for example, Bottigheimer (1998, p. 190) argues that children’s literature is “an important system of its own”. To complicate matters further, there are those who 7 https://www.angelicum.net/classical-homeschooling-magazine/fourth-issue/the-importance-of-childrens- literature-the-good-books/ 16 maintain that to be included in the category of ‘children’s literature’, writing must be of ‘good quality’. Thus, for example, Hillman (1999, p. 3) would exclude from the category of ‘children’s literature’, writing that is “stodgy,” “too predictable,” or “too illogical.” Precisely how one determines whether a work meets these extremely vague criteria largely remains an open question. Definitions of children’s literature can be assigned to three broad categories (intended audience; purpose; style/quality), the second of which includes three sub-categories (entertainment; entertainment and information; empathy). Although, in terms of overall emphasis, the majority of definitions fall into one of these categories and sub-categories, some include aspects of more than one of them. The most commonly occurring contemporary definition of children’s literature is one that focuses on intended audience. For many writers, children’s literature is simply a body of texts that is intended for a particular readership, that is, children, children being defined loosely in terms of a range of socio-cultural and individual characteristics (see, for example, Galda & Cullinan, 2002; Hunt, 1996; LesnikOberstein, 1999; McDowell, 1973; Weinreich & Bartlett, 2000). Also common are definitions of children’s literature that focus on purpose. That purpose is sometimes seen in terms of both information and entertainment (see, for example, Norton, 1999; Tomlinson & Lynch-Brown, 1996/2002; Winch, Johnson, March, Ljungdahl & Holliday, 2004); sometimes, however, entertainment alone is the critical definitional feature, the emphasis generally being on works belonging to the narrative genre (see, for example, Ghosn, 2002; Hollindale, 1997). Less often, definitions that relate primarily to purpose focus on empathy, children’s literature being classified as literature that is designed to help children to understand, and emphasize with, the world views and experiences of others, including other children (see, for example, Huck, Helper, Hickman & Kiefer, 2001; Saxby, 1997; Tomlinson & Lynch-Brown, 1996/2002). Finally, there are those who believe that children’s literature should be defined in terms of style and quality (see, for example, Lukens, 1995). 17 Children’s literature: Genre and text-type The words ‘genre’ and ‘text-type’ can be used in two very different ways. In line with traditional usage (particularly in literary contexts), a number of academic researchers use the word ‘genre’ to refer to socially constructed categories that describe written and oral texts such as, for example, novels, short stories, poems, lectures, and academic articles. Here, these are described as text-types, the term genre being reserved for the classification of texts according to primary communicative purposes such as instructing, explaining, arguing, describing, classifying and recounting. Texts may be mono-generic or multi-generic. Thus, for example, a text belonging to a particular text-type such as a short story, may include a variety of different genres such as description, classification, explanation and recount (see, for example, Houia-Roberts, 2003). Drawing upon the work of Halliday (1985), Martin (1985), Martin and Rothery (1986), Christie (1989), Painter (1985), Kress (1982; 1985) and others, and also upon the expertise of experienced teachers, Derewianka (1991/1994) outlines six genres (recount, instruction, exposition/argument, narrative, report and explanation), associating each with structural elements and typical linguistic features and arguing that it is important that young learners should be introduced to all of these genres. As indicated above, a number of writers define children’s literature as narrative fiction whose primary purpose is entertainment. This, however, restricts children’s literature to one particular text-type (story) and one particular genre (narrative). In seeking to include different text-types within the scope of children’s literature, Tomlinson and Lynch- Brown (1996/2002, p. 2) define children’s literature as “good quality trade books written especially for children from birth to adolescence, covering topics of relevance and interest to children . . . through prose and poetry, fiction and nonfiction.” Leaving aside for the moment the question of what is meant here by ‘good quality’, a definition such as this would include, in terms of text-types, “novels, poetry, drama, biographies and autobiographies, and essays” as well as “writings in fields such as philosophy, history, and science” (Winch et al., 2004, p. 18 328), presumably including topicbased books belonging primarily to the information genre. However, since ‘trade books’ are books published for children and young adults that are not textbooks or part of a basal reading series (Glaister, Huston, Rodermond & Fowler, 2003), some works that I would wish to include here as works of children’s literature (see 2.2.4 above) are excluded from this definition. According to Winch et al. (2004, p. 339), children’s literature can play an important role in cognitive and linguistic development, providing “a locus for the activation of . . . speaking and listening skills, giving them purpose and direction”, and a place “where children encounter in a non-threatening way a diversity of possible perspectives on philosophical issues, worldviews, social ideas, and cultural practices”. If any of these essentially pedagogic functions are to be realized, teachers need to understand the organizational and linguistic characteristics of different genres and text-types in making selections and deciding on appropriate methodologies 8 . 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